Friday, October 21, 2011

This black bean soup saved me during a recent attack of, “Oh my God, there is nothing in kitchen to cook with!” Even though it sometimes seems that way, there's rarely, literally nothing to cook with. I quickly found a few slices of bacon, a couple cans of beans, and an onion, and with the help of a spicy lime and green onion relish, turned it into a very decent bowl of soup.

It got me thinking about all those long shelf life, must-have pantry and fridge staples you can count on to produce a meal when lacking supplies. My short list is olive oil, beans, pasta, bacon, Parmigiano-Reggiano, eggs, tomato sauce, anchovies, salami, capers, garlic, onions, potatoes, and fresh citrus. As long as those things are close by, I can still look forward to a great meal no matter how sparse the rest of the provisions.

By the way, this will work with any smashable bean, and rumor has it that a handful of sausage in place of the bacon is a great variation. With wet, chillier days ahead, I think you’ll have occasion to give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 Servings:

6 slices bacon

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth or water

2 cans black beans, rinsed, plus 1 can of water

pinch dried oregano

pinch cayenne

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

salt and pepper to taste

For the relish (note – I only made a little bit in the video. This is enough for 4 servings):

33 comments:

Some people believe the hole in the wooden spoon is for measuring out one portion of dried pasta. Those people are wrong, and should be slapped upside the head.

Anyone who has experienced the wrath of an Italian grandmother wielding a wooden spoon as a means of corporeal punishment will tell you that the hole is meant to maximize the pain inflicted by said instrument upon one's knuckles or scalp, due to the reduced air resistance.

I imagine that's why Chef John avoided the question: too many traumatic memories.

Yeah... anyhoo, I like to add a bit of grated fresh cotija cheese in my black bean soup.

As far as I know, the hole in the spoon is to facilitate stirring with the least resistance from the fluid. This principle can also be applied to dishes which should be stirred gently, like risotto, which benefit from agitation without over-mixing to mush.

This bean soup is the best comfort food on a cold night.. I am having it for lunch now. Delicious !!! I love the relish so much. I made extra to use it with my fajita for dinner.. Actually the relish can be used with any dish.. Chef John can I use other kinds of bean?? Like red bean or pinto beans??

Hello Chef- Now that we have your short list of pantry items I was wondering if, at some future juncture when you, say, run out of holy spoon jokes, you could post a longer pantry idea list with a recipe or two to illustrate the amazing utility and resourcefulness of said stocked pantry and it's nirvana-like bliss-inducing state of rapture. Not to be confused with other raptures currently being contemplated elswhere.

"That is a really interesting, interesting question." You are hysterically funny and have me laughing out loud regularly.

Your must-have short list is full of all those great strong flavored add-ins. I don't need to keep the salami around, but the rest, along with sour cream or creme fraiche and coconut milk, are on mine. I also snag fresh herbs all the time from my garden, so that's a must have for me.

I really do "Enjoy" all your videos and look forward to your creative and sweet sense of humor as much as the recipes.

I just made this for dinner tonight and we quite loved it. I didn't have the ingredient on hand to make the relish so I just topped it with Trader Joes Verde Salsa...and it was perfect! What a wonderful and quick dinner. Thank you!

Dear Chef John, I made this for dinner too and it turned out so fabulous, just like all your posted recipes :D I used Crème Fraiche instead of sour cream for the relish. I never thought that these "Extra" toppings made such a big difference. Lime + Green onions + creme fraiche = FTW!!

made this last night! The colour of our soup wasn't quite as nice as yours.. perhaps it was just the type of black beans i used... or i didn't mash enough.. but it still tasted wonderful and had a great texture! The only thing i changed was that I added a bit more spice to warm it up a touch more because my boyfriend and i love all things spicy. The lime,chili, onion relish and the sour cream was a wonderful treat on top as well!

I'll be adding this to our regular meal rotation.. it was a lovely soup, and will be a great quick and easy winter meal! Thanks very much!

Love you all your video recipes, thanks, but am wondering about the size cans (black beans + water) used in this particular recipe? Can't find any reference to it either in the video itself or the text of the recipe. Thanks for your help.

I just made this soup yesterday and it turned out perfectly! Love, love, love the soup recipes on this site. I used two 19 oz. cans of black beans....it made enough for 4 servings, possibly a bit more depending on serving size.

Chef John,I made this recently and it was great. I changed it up just a little bit..added a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all. I also added 1/2 cup of uncooked Bulgur for the last 20 minutes of simmer time to thicken more. My husband loves this and could eat it all the time. We have it with heated up corn tortilla's on the side.

I tried this recipe following pretty much to the letter the first time round and it turned out very good!

I played around with the recipe just now, skipped the bacon (partially because I didn't have any and I didn't think it added a whole lot to it the first time) and blended the whole thing very smooth. OMG, it's a lot lighter in colour and pretty thick and it tastes a lot more creamy. I'm a very happy bunny, and at £0.40 a serving, it's bloody good value!

A nice variation on this soup can be had with some canned tomatoes (especially the kind with green chilies) and some smoked paprika. Two different soups for still very little and way good for you. Thanks for soup recipe chef John.

I love your blog. Thank you so much.I love black beans. In this vid you mention the black bean soup that takes a long time and uses the dried beans and all the slicin’ and chopin’ and dicin’ and mincin’... I'd really like to see that one someday :)

This video recipe was featured today on allrecipe.com. I watched and thought "is it really that easy?" So I went into my kitchen and to my surprise I had all the ingredients...well the bean I had to soak first since my family feels canned beans is a sin against nature. But the next day's lunch was this soup and it was dee-lish-us. Thanks for making this video. I am now a Chef John accolyte!